Suboxone!! help?

im not sure what to do... i feel like this is never going to end. i used to take pain pills everyday. i stopped taking them (clean for 2 years) and have been snorting suboxone for the past 2 yrs. I used to get sub on the street... ended up having to go to the dr. to get a prescription becasue my connection moved away & i experienced horrible w/d symptoms. I AM addicted to suboxone now. i usually take it in the afternoon. I start feeling w/d symptoms in the early afternoon like an hr. before i usually take it. Symptoms stop once i take the suboxone. I snort like 1/4 of an 8 mg tab daily. I've tried tapering off one time before and the w/d effects were HORRIBLE!!! i want to stop taking the medicine but do not want to experience those side effects at all! it's taken over my life!! Is there any hope??

Answers (2)

Anonymous

17 Jan 2010

You shouldn't be snorting these pills obviously. Try and find a drug counselor and see if they can help you and the doctor figure out a way to taper down. I cut my dose in half and took half the dose in the morning and half in the early afternoon and after 4 week, stopped taking the second dose in the afternoon. This is what worked for me. You have to stop taking them wrong first. You may not be feeling true withdrawal. Try to find the COWS sheet ( clinical opiate withdrawal scale) and see how many withdrawal symptoms you have and how high your cows score is. There are medications such as clonidine to also help with withdrawal symptoms. A counselor will help you, I promise. This is kinda beyond what any of us can do for you on this site. If worse comes to worse, check out an AA meeting and listen to hear people identify as alcoholic AND addict and ask for some help from them. It will help to have a group of supportive people. Good Luck, I will say some Prayers for you.

Walton, suboxone is a very long acting opiate replacement treatment. I do suspect that what you are feeling may NOT be true withdrawal, it may be a real medical problem, or the fact that you are so used to taking the suboxone and you believe you have to take it every 24 hours that you have kinda misinterpreted some symptoms as withdrawal. Please google the COWS sheet and honestly answer all the questions and talk to your doctor about what is going on. Some people on this site have said that they have skipped a few days and didn't have any withdrawal. There are also meds to help with withdrawal symptoms that the suboxone is not clearing up. And if you do decide to get off of it, you have got to taper is down. There is a list of otc drugs and supplements called the Thomas Recipe and they help with symptoms. Google the Thomas Recipe opiate withdrawal and you should be able to find this list.

Go to a health food store and regular drug store and make sure you have at least the otc meds like advil and immodium ad on hand to help you. I hope that you are feeling a little more positive today. Also, as odd as this sounds, walking or other light exercise will help tremedously in helping your brain reboot itself so it will try and produce its own opiates. Try walking or exercising for a week and you will see this is true.

im just going to say it... it may be beneficial for you to take the withdrawal effects (preferably in a detox center followed by rehab) so you can associate the pain of withdrawals with these pain pills. Its pretty obvious that you cant taper your self so get some one to do it for you (well atleast force you into doing it like you want to anyway)